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Steve Jobs
OVERVIEW OF ACCOMPLISHMENT ''' '''Introduction Steve Jobs along with his partner Steve Wozniak founded Apple Computer in the 1970s. Together they developed the first commercially successful personal computer, the Apple II in the late 1970s, and then went on to create the first user-friendly machine, the Macintosh in 1985. After being forced out of the company, Jobs returned to help the faltering company by rejuvenating its Macintosh line and by developing the wildly successful IPod multimedia device, and their first foray into the telecommunications business with the introduction of the IPhone. List of Major Accomplishments *Created one of the first viable personal computer companies, which became the largest one in the world within a few years. *Developed the first commercially successful personal computer, the Apple II. *Developed the first user-friendly computer, the Macintosh, which included a mouse and a what you see is what you get (Wsywyg) easy to use interface. *Create the IPod multimedia device for listening to music, watching videos, and connecting to the Internet, which became extremely successful worldwide. *Rescued Apple from a money-losing operation in the mid 1990s to an enormously successful, highly profitable 30 billion dollar company by 2008. The company had a staggering 20 B in cash without any long-term debt. *Developed the user-friendly IPhone telecommunication devise, revamping the look and feel of such devices for the entire Smartphone industry. *Implemented at Apple the informal working style of Silicon Valley that has become a model around the world. *Championed state of the art inner and outer design in their many products. Biography *'Early years' Steve Jobs was born in San Francisco and was adopted by Paul and Clara (née Hagopian) Jobs of Mountain View, Santa Clara County, California who named him Steven Paul. His biological parents, Joanne Carole Schieble and Syrian Abdulfattah Jandali —a graduate student who later became a political science professor— later married and gave birth to Jobs' sister, the novelist Mona Simpson. Jobs attended Cupertino Middle School and Homestead High School in Cupertino, California, and frequented after-school lectures at the Hewlett-Packard Company in Palo Alto, California. He was soon hired there and worked with Steve Wozniak as a summer employee. In 1972, Jobs graduated from high school and enrolled in Reed College in Portland, Oregon. Although he dropped out after only one semester, he continued auditing classes at Reed, such as one in calligraphy. "If I had never dropped in on that single course in college, the Mac would have never had multiple typefaces or proportionally spaced fonts," he said. In the autumn of 1974, Jobs returned to California and began attending meetings of the Homebrew Computer Club with Steve Wozniak. He took a job as a technician at Atari, a manufacturer of popular video games, with the primary intent of saving money for a spiritual retreat to India. During the 1960s, it had been discovered by phone phreakers (and popularized by John Draper) that a half taped-over toy-whistle included in every box of Cap'n Crunch breakfast cereal was able to reproduce the 2600 hertz supervision tone used by the AT&T long distance telephone system. After reading about it and later meeting with John Draper, Jobs and Wozniak went into business briefly in 1974 to build "blue boxes" that allowed illicit free long distance calls. Jobs then backpacked around India with a Reed College friend (and, later, first Apple employee), Daniel Kottke, in search of philosophical enlightenment. He came back with his head shaved and wearing traditional Indian clothing. During this time, Jobs experimented with LSD, calling these experiences "one of the two or three most important things he has done in his life." He has stated that people around him who did not share his countercultural roots could not understand certain aspects of his thinking. He returned to his previous job at Atari and was given the task of creating a circuit board for the game Breakout. According to Atari Founder Nolan Bushnell, Atari had offered US$100 for each chip that was reduced in the machine. Jobs had little interest or knowledge in circuit board design and made a deal with Wozniak to split the bonus evenly between them if Wozniak could minimize the number of chips. Much to the amazement of Atari, Wozniak reduced the number of chips by 50, a design so tight that it was impossible to reproduce on an assembly line. At the time, Jobs told Wozniak that Atari had only given them US$700 (instead of the actual US$5000) and that Wozniak's share was thus US$350. *'Beginnings of Apple Computer' When twenty-one-year-old Jobs saw a computer that Wozniak had designed for his own use, he persuaded Wozniak to assist him and started a company to market the computer. Apple Computer Co. was founded as a partnership on April 1, 1976. Though their initial plan was to sell just printed circuit boards, Jobs and Wozniak ended up creating a batch of completely assembled computers and thus entered the personal computer business. The first personal computer Jobs and Wozniak introduced, the Apple I, sold for US$666.66, a number Wozniak came up with because he liked repeating digits. Its successor, the Apple II, was introduced the following year and became a huge success, turning Apple into an important player in the nascent personal computer industry. In December 1980, with a successful IPO, Apple Computer became a publicly traded corporation, making Jobs a multi-millionaire. As Apple continued to expand, the company began looking for an experienced executive to help manage its expansion. In 1983, Jobs lured John Sculley away from Pepsi-Cola, to serve as Apple's CEO, challenging him, "Do you want to spend the rest of your life selling sugared water, or do you want a chance to change the world?" The following year, Apple set out to do just that, starting with a Super Bowl television commercial titled, "1984." Two days later at Apple's annual shareholders meeting on January 24, 1984, an emotional Jobs introduced the Macintosh to a wildly enthusiastic audience; Andy Hertzfeld described the scene as "pandemonium." The Macintosh became the first commercially successful computer with a graphical user interface, although it was heavily influenced by Xerox PARC. The development of the Mac was started by Jeff Raskin, and eventually taken over by Jobs. While Jobs was a persuasive and charismatic evangelist for Apple, some of his employees from that time had described him as an erratic and tempestuous manager. An industry-wide sales slump towards the end of 1984 caused a deterioration in Jobs' working relationship with Sculley, and at the end of May 1985 – following an internal power struggle and an announcement of significant layoffs – Sculley relieved Jobs of his duties as head of the Macintosh division. It should also be kept in mind that Jobs wanted Apple to devote its resources to the new Mac, pushing the Apple II aside. Apple however was making most of its money on the Apple II. Jobs was willing to give up the old for the next great things. This added to the conflict between Jobs and the board/Sculley, leading to Jobs’ dismissal. *'NeXT' In 1986, finding himself sidelined by the company he had founded, Jobs sold all but one of his shares in Apple. The single share may have been for symbolic and sentimental reasons or to ensure that he would receive stock reports (as some biography books have stated) and attend shareholder meetings. Around the same time, Jobs founded another computer company, NeXT Computer. Like the Apple Lisa, the NeXT workstation was technologically advanced, but was never able to break into the mainstream mainly owing to its high cost. Among those who could afford it, however, the NeXT workstation garnered a strong following because of its technical strengths, chief among them its object-oriented software development system. Jobs marketed NeXT products to the scientific and academic fields because of the innovative, experimental new technologies it incorporated (such as the Mach kernel, the digital signal processor chip, and the built-in Ethernet port). The NeXT Cube was described by Jobs as an "interpersonal" computer, which he believed was the next step after "personal" computing. That is, if computers could allow people to communicate and collaborate together in an easy way, it would solve a lot of the problems that "personal" computing had come up against. During a time when e-mail for most people was plain text, Jobs loved to demo the NeXT's e-mail system, NeXTMail, as an example of his "interpersonal" philosophy. NeXTMail was one of the first to support universally visible, clickable embedded graphics and audio within e-mail. Jobs ran NeXT with an obsession for aesthetic perfection, as evidenced by such things as the NeXT Cube's magnesium case. This put considerable strain on NeXT's hardware division, and in 1993, after having sold only 50,000 machines, NeXT transitioned fully to software development with the release of NeXTSTEP/Intel. NeXT technology played a large role in catalyzing three unrelated events: The World Wide Web. Tim Berners-Lee developed the original World Wide Web system at CERN on a NeXT workstation. Jean-Marie Hullot's 'SOS Interface' became the basic for Interface Builder which Hullot built for NeXT and which Berners-Lee also used in his project the program 'WorldWideWeb'. NeXT computers were used in the development of the computer game Doom. The return of Apple Computer. Apple's reliance on outdated software and internal mismanagement, particularly its inability to release a major operating system upgrade, had brought it near bankruptcy in the early-to-mid 1990s. Jobs' progressive stance on Unix and open source underpinnings was considered overly ambitious and somewhat backward in the 1980s but ultimately became an expandable solid foundation for an operating system. Apple would later acquire this software and under Jobs' leadership experience a renaissance. *'Return to Apple' In 1996, Apple announced that it would buy NeXT for US$429 million. The deal was finalized in late 1996, bringing Jobs back to the company he founded. He soon became Apple's interim CEO after the directors lost confidence in and ousted then-CEO Gil Amelio in a boardroom coup. In March of 1998, in order to concentrate Apple's efforts on returning to profitability, Jobs immediately terminated a number of projects such as Newton, Cyberdog, and OpenDoc. In the coming months, many employees developed a fear of encountering Jobs while riding in the elevator, "afraid that they might not have a job when the doors opened. The reality was that Jobs's summary executions were rare, but a handful of victims was enough to terrorize a whole company." With the purchase of NeXT, much of the company's technology found its way into Apple products, notably NeXTSTEP, which evolved into Mac OS X. Under Jobs's guidance the company increased sales significantly with the introduction of the iMac and other new products; since then, appealing designs and powerful branding have worked well for Apple. At the 2000 Macworld Expo, Jobs officially dropped the "interim" modifier from his title at Apple and became permanent CEO. In recent years, the company has branched out, introducing and improving upon other digital appliances. With the introduction of the iPod portable music player, iTunes digital music software, and the iTunes Store, the company made forays into consumer electronics and music distribution. This along with a steadily improving Mac market established Apple’s biggest boom in 25 years. For the first time In 2007 Apple entered the cellular phone business with the introduction of the iPhone, a multi-touch display cell phone, iPod, and internet device. While stimulating innovation, Jobs also reminds his employees that "real artists ship," by which he means that delivering working products on time is as important as innovation and attractive design. Jobs works at Apple for an annual salary of US$1, and this earned him a listing in Guinness World Records as the "Lowest Paid Chief Executive Officer." His current salary at Apple officially remains US$1 per year, although he has traditionally been the recipient of a number of lucrative "executive gifts" from the board, including a US$46 million jet in 1999 and just under 30 million shares of restricted stock in 2000–2002. As such, Jobs is well compensated for his efforts at Apple despite the nominal one-dollar salary. This approach reduces his personal tax liability because, under current U.S. tax law, salary income is taxed at a significantly higher rate (currently up to 35%) than the capital gains tax (currently a maximum of 15%) applied to profits arising from the sale of stock grants. Obtaining remuneration through stock instead of salary is a common extrinsic rewarding technique which ties management performance to financial benefits. Furthermore, it acts as a tax minimization strategy. Jobs is both admired and criticized for his consummate skill at persuasion and salesmanship, which has been dubbed the "reality distortion field" and is particularly evident during his keynote speeches (colloquially known as "Stevenotes") at Macworld Expos and at Apple's own World Wide Developers Conferences. In 2005, Jobs responded to criticism of Apple's poor recycling programs for e-waste in the U.S. by lashing out at environmental and other advocates at Apple's Annual Meeting in Cupertino in April. When asked by a representative of a liberal investment fund why Apple's programs lagged behind Dell's and HP's, Jobs wound up his critic by calling the advocates' complaints "poo-poo head." However, a few weeks later, Apple announced it would take back iPods for free at its retail stores. (This shows how Jobs often would be disparaging of a criticism, but later shift gears. The most famous case was perhaps “when hell freezes over,” when Apple enabled Windows software to run on a Mac.) The Computer TakeBack Campaign responded by flying a banner from a plane over the Stanford University graduation at which Jobs was the commencement speaker. The banner read "Steve — Don't be a mini-player recycle all e-waste". In 2006 he further expanded Apple's recycling programs to any U.S. customer who buys a new Mac. This program includes shipping and "environmentally friendly disposal" of their old systems. Jobs began 2007 with Macworld Expo at the Moscone Center in San Francisco. He began the episodic keynote address by reviewing Apple's music business through iTunes music and video highlights, mentioning that rumors of the decline in Internet music business were false. Highlights included the long-awaited iPhone mobile device as well as the rebranding and official introduction of Apple TV. After the long-awaited introduction of these two products, Jobs announced on January 9, 2007 that "Apple Computer, Inc" would be now known as "Apple Inc." 'PERSONAL TRAITS, TALENTS, AND VALUES *'Envisioning, Foreseeing the Future; Trendsetter''' One trait common to most change-makers is the ability to envision a different future in that person’s domain or filed. Jobs’ is certainly a visionary in his filed, constantly perceiving new possibilities in his industry. That ability to foresee new products and services at Apple and thereby set new directions and trends for the company and the entire industry is legend. *'Innovative; Creates New Realities' In addition to envisioning future possibilities, that which Jobs envisioned was highly innovative; more often than not a breakthrough in that domain. That ability to envision the new that is unprecedented is another quality that Job’s has in spades. *'The Integrator' One particular talent Jobs has is the ability to see various items in a field and often organize it into something entirely new. This integrator capacity is one of the Hallmark’s of Jobs’ mind. For example, he saw the graphic user interface at Xerox Parc in the early days of Apple and then integrated into the emerging personal computer. Similarly later on when he saw a fragmented MP3 market, he thought of different aspects from different systems that he would like to create in his own device – the IPod – which also includes advances in user interface from his own OSX Mac operating system. He did the same when he integrated the web based ITunes music store into both the PC and the iPod devise. His ability to see various sides and integrate it into a new innovative reality/system/product is one of the hallmarks of Jobs’ mental skill and talent. *'Revolutionizing Industries' Jobs takes pleasure in revolutionizing a field; questioning its assumptions and creating replacements that turn that industry upside down while driving it to new, unprecedented levels of success. Again, the IPod is a perfect example. This fervor to revolutionize things comes right out of the revolutionary like idealism of the 60s and some of the Hippies who questioned all assumptions, even the foundations of society. Jobs participated in that unfolding in part and has carried it over to his work at Apple. That revolutionary, life changing verve is one of Jobs’ deep personal values *'Simplicity, Accessibility' Perhaps the chief way he is innovative, integrative, and revolutionizes industry is his deep belief in making hardware and software that is easy to use, to the point of sheer elegance. Dating Mac to the inception of the Mac he wanted to create a radically new product that would revolutionize the industry through its ease of use. The graphic user interface (GUI) was a radical departure from anything before in the personal computer. Similarly, when he championed the WYSWYG output from the computer, including graphics, onto the LaserWriter printer, he championed a revolution in the printing filed. He did the same with the IPod and especially the IPhone. Jobs’ deep belief in making things easy for people – i.e. Ease of Use – is one of his core personal values and beliefs, which reflects in the innovative, even revolutionary products he has developed. Speaking in the early days of the Mac Jobs said: “We want to make a product like the first telephone. We want to make mass-market appliances. What we are trying to develop is a computer that can do all those things that you might expect, but we also offer a much higher performance which takes the form of a very easy-to-use product." We see here a vision of something extremely easy to us that has an all in one quality of design. Melding the inner and the outer into one seamless product, as in the Mac and particularly the IPhone, making it so simple that it is almost appliance life, is another thing that drives Jobs’ thinking in developing Apple products and services. *'Ability to See/Solve problems in society' One key quality of a change-maker is the ability to perceive a problem in society and offer solutions to it. E.g., Martin Luther saw the abuse of the church through tax and other forms of doctrinaire oppression, and fought for its removal. E.g., he said that the Bible not the church was the true conduit to the spirit. His action created a revolution in society, by not only bringing about an alternate approach to the Christian religion, but served to unleash the forces of freedom in Europe. Smaller, Personal Computer -- Steve Jobs has seen a variety of problems in the technology arena and has sought to solve them. For example, he saw that the computer was being used by huge organization, rather than the common man. He thus sought to develop a personal computer that anyone could use. He was not the only one who had this vision, as we saw many individuals at the Homebrew Computer Club having the same idea in mind. The difference is that he was committed to making it a mass phenomenon in society, not just a kit for personal use. Thus he developed the Apple computer with the intention of changing the role of the computer from a massive clunky device for elites to a small, easier to use machine for the average person (or small business). Easier to Use Computer – All personal computers until 1984 were rather difficult to use, with green or black background with white or green text and no graphics. The machine was controlled only through keyboard input. Jobs however, influenced by what he saw at Xerox Parc aimed to make a system that anyone could use with a simple graphical interface and the use of a mouse input device. Thus, overcoming the difficulty of use was a problem in society that he sought to overcome. He did so on the Macintosh, which in turn influenced the Windows operating system from Microsoft. In essence, his desire to change that limitation in the technological world and in society revolutionized both. Better Music Access - Yet a third problem in society appeared years later when people, especially youngsters were illegally downloading music, enabling the skirting of having to pay, which caused the music publishing companies and the musicians to lose money. And yet using the Internet was an easy medium for accessing music rather than the CD. Jobs saw a that problem and aimed to solve it by establishing not only an easy to use MP3 player, he IPod, by an easy to access ITunes music store in which people could download music over the Internet and yet still pay for it on a song by song or album basis. With the IPhone Jobs went back to the original inspiration of an all in one device of the Mac that was easy to use, which would in turn resolve several technological hurdles. It integrated email, multimedia (as in the IPod), phone calling, and Internet browsing all in one. Rather than having several devices to achieve this, one could have one making it more convenient to carry around, yet have access to all of these features and more (like Maps) in one easy to use device. In this and in many other ways Jobs looked at problems in the industry and society and came up with solutions. In each case, he wildly succeeded. The industries and society was indeed changed. (Note: Below in the section on Society, we discuss what the true, underlying psychological and social needs of the society were that were behind these needs for technological change. Suffice it to say here that Jobs had an uncanny ability to ride the emerging wave of society – from the urge for a personal computer to the need for the needs for an easy to use personal experience to the development of integrative multimedia technologies that the average person aspired for.) *'Spearheads development' Steve Jobs himself felt that his greatest talent was spearheading development of new products. He saw a social or technological limitation, had a vision of something new, and had that urge and will to drive development of it until it came out as he wanted. He then put full force of his energies – including innovative, sometimes revolutionary marketing techniques – drive it into the market. It is Jobs ability to conceptualize and actualize projects of new development that is one of the reasons he had such great success and alter the course of his industry, technology in general and the world. Closely related is the fact that he led the customer rather than followed it. One precept of modern management business management is to listen to what the customer wants and then develop products and services based on that. In a way Jobs went to a different model of looking at what was going on in technology and society and drive new development based on that, with the added value of creating ease of use, simplicity, and an all in one experience. These are things that the customer may have never imagined. By leading the customer, Jobs felt he could bring much improved change to the world around him. It is an individualistic, creative urge more than a collaborative one in that sense, even as he worked collectively within Apple to bring these often-revolutionary products to market. We can see here the 60s creative impulse and values at work. It is also a power of individuality, self-empowerment, and personal aspiration that expresses in the thought of Thoreau to the Bhagavad Gita (You become what you believe you can become.) *'Risk taker' *'True Individual – Thinks for himself; does not follow the herd' o Examples: experimented with drugs and Eastern religions o was something of a loner o always had a different way of looking at things o took classes in philosophy and immersing himself in the counterculture o trip to India where he traveled in search of spiritual enlightenment o e.g. relative to Wall Street demands o set the stage for Google in this way *'Hip/Hippy sensibilities' o Homebrew Computer Club o The image Jobs wanted the public to have of the Macintosh was young, wears blue jeans, and lives in an 80's version of the 60's counterculture. Macintosh was impatient, uncomfortable, and contemptuous of everything that was conventional or hierarchical. o Has Bay Area/California sensibility o Respects other cultures, possibilities. o Belief in informal lifestyle of Silicon Valley o Has western US values of endless possibilities (like Charles in Seabiscuit) o Contemporary, Informal Lifestyle *'Creativity, Innovation over Money Value' o The reward is the joy of innovation itself, not money, which creates ultimate success, producing vast money. KEY! *'Artistic, Creative Sensibilities' o Elegant software (the inner); Sensibility of elegance o Elegant hardware, especially the outer look o Integration of elegant software and elegant hardware *'Creativity, Innovation over the Old' The reward is the joy of innovation itself, not money, which creates ultimate success, producing vast money. KEY! o Jobs wanted Apple to devote its resources to the new Mac, pushing the Apple II aside. Apple however was making most of its money on the Apple II. Jobs was willing to give up the old for the next great things. This added to the conflict between Jobs and the board/Sculley, leading to Jobs’ dismissal. *'Unique combo of artistic and commercial interests. KEY' *'Highly Conscious of the Market' o Had commercial/marketing view of things o In early days had interest in marketability of electronic products o received marketing advice from a friend, who was a retired CEO from Intel o For the Apple II computer to compete against IBM, Jobs needed better marketing skills. He brought Regis McKenna and Nolan Bushnell into the company. McKenna was the foremost public relations man in the Silicon Valley. Showman, motivator, influencer; consummate skill at speaking persuasion and salesmanship *'Values Surprise and Delight' of the new (particularly in the presentation of the products); The delight of discovery of that which was previously unknown *'Curiosity' o Went to India. o Experimented with psychedelics o Looked at Xerox Parc for ideas and found graphic interface that led to Mac *'Perfectionist; drive for perfection' o Details of every software feature and hardware component *'Sometimes difficult personality' o aggressive and demanding o Has been stubborn (not opening the Mac to others) o e.g. blistering verbal attack, but relents when he sees truth of things *'Willing to grow as a person' e.g. has become more aware of his faults; new willingness to partner; more willing to change *'Entrepreneurial spirit (embodied at Apple) *'Revolutionary, Messianic fervor (at Apple)' o Throughout the development of the Macintosh, he had fanned the fervor of the design team by characterizing them as brilliant, committed marhinals. He repeatedly clothed both public and private statements about the machine in revolutionary, sometimes violent imagery, first encouraging his compatriots to see themselves as outlaws, and then target the audience to imagine themselves as revolutionaries. Jobs, like all those who worked on the project, saw the Macintosh as something that would change the world. *'Aware of his mortality''' *'Is constantly having to prove himself' o (Apple too, to keep ahead). o Innovate to survive. They could lose market share any time. o Microsoft is almost the opposite. *'Develops grandiose plans as in Lisa, Mac, IPhone' *'Other Influences on Accomplishment' o Family; Influences of others; Early/Previous work's influence; Other influences CAPACITIES FOR ACCOMPLISHMENT *Conception, vision, focus, absorption *Compelling, drive, will, urge to achieve *Organization *Determination *Skills *Energy *Right Attitudes *Strength *Enjoyment Spiritual capacities THE FIELD AND THE SOCIETY The Field *The history, nature, and status of the field *Challenges, limits, problems, opportunities of the field *How the change-maker changed things The Society *Wider needs of society *Fills a need in society *''Changing Times'' -- Takes up an endeavor that is in tune with changing times (e.g. new leading edge dress styles in House of Elliot pursued by Evie) *''Emerging Wave'' -- Perceives and catches the emerging wave of social progress (e.g. JK Rowling, Steve Jobs) *''Problems'' -- Is alert to uncover and explore a problem in society (e.g. Al Gore, Steve Jobs) *''Sees New Possibilities'' -- Develops new standards, further organization in that domain *''Opportunities Perceived'' -- Subconscious Aspiration -- Expresses aspirations for which the society is subconsciously disposed *''Society’s Support of the Endeavor'' -- Lives in society supportive of or ready to be supportive of their intent *The Evolutionary urge of society KEY DECISIONS, OBSTACLES, MISTEPS ' '*Key Decisions *Obstacles Overcome *Missteps; How Handled After PROCESS OF SOCIAL DEVELOPMENT & THE PIONEER ' '*Overview *Pioneer in terms of this accomplishment CHARACTER OF LIFE *Definition *Life Response *Predecessor Events *Synchronicities *Out of negative comes positive *Other Interesting Phenomena Jobs was kicked out of Apple and founded Next. Next would prove to be the next thing in that it became the basis of the new machine. Also Tim Berners-Lee developed the original World Wide Web system at CERN on a NeXT workstation. Return to the main Change Makers project page Category:Change-makers